Blogs from Liaoning, China, Asia - page 19

Day one: Our cruise down the Yangtze River was amazing. We started out on Monday morning 5:40 a.m. to catch a flight from Dalian to Wuhan - about a 2 hour flight. There we were met by a guide who took the 4 of us (Gail, Rick, Peter and Dianne) by a small bus to the city of Yi Chang, about a 4 hour trip. The ride went by quickly, watching the small farms with water buffalo, ducks, fishing ponds, lots of farmers working their fields by hand. When we arrived at Yi Chang, we were met by a guide who showed us the city for several hours until we could board the boat at 5:00. After dropping our bags off and finding our rooms on the boat, we ventured back into the city for supper. ... read more

On Monday it became clear that there would be no lectures on Friday. This was for me the trigger to immediately book a train ticket to Dalian. I actually had this trip in mind for the long weekend after the National holiday, but it is not clear whether we really have this long weekend, so when this long weekend appeared, my choice was made very easily. Because it is not possible to book a return ticket, I decided to take the night train to Dalian and by a return ticket there at arrival (my first preference was go directly to Dandong). For the first time travelling by train, the people around me were not so curious and talkative. This made the train trip very silent. Because the train left at 21:15 and arrived at half past ... read more

Part One: West This week was a big one for celebration here in Dalian. In addition to Freddy's birthday this Sunday, my roommate Tim had a birthday on Wednesday, which he happens to share with the G.M. of the Goodyear plant over here. So we went down to an expat bar in the city called Brooklyn, owned by a Chinese-American who can actually speak Chinese (my boss knows enough to get around, probably more than he lets on; like a lot of expats here, not speaking Chinese unless it's absolutely necessary is sort of a point of pride) and who takes pride in serving good Western food, a true rarity here unless you savor McDonald's (see below). The bar was populated by a bunch of 40-something Westerners and their 20-something Chinese wives. Not really; not all ... read more

Chinese food, appallingly familiar to most Americans, is a very different beast in its home country. Learning how to order food was always the slowest of my grudgingly accelerating language skills when I was in Beijing, mainly because all the restaurants we went to had pictures on the menu. Since I've been back, I've been trying to learn the names of some of my favorite common foods. Eggplant here is amazingly delicious, perhaps because anything would be delicious if it were soaked in gratuitous amount of oil before serving. I always thought bacon made everything a better dish, so lucky for me that about every cut of meat here is basically the "bacon" of whatever animal it's been extracted from. They also know what to do with cucumber: douse it in vinegar and hot peppers. And ... read more

Life here continues to be action-packed. My boss Freddy has the energy of a pre-schooler, which might explain why he works in a school; he is constantly bouncing around, talking at 300 miles an hour, calling every 15 minutes to see if I need anything, do I want to get breakfast, how is my A.C working, will I be in school tomorrow, am I still alive and able to teach for him. Consequently, my work environment is rather fast-paced. Although I don't start working officially until Thursday (or getting paid officially, for that matter), I did full days both Saturday and Sunday this week. The weekends are our busiest time; when the kids don't have regular school or music lessons or art lessons or sports lessons or computer lessons, their parents send them to English lessons. ... read more